The Dominion Country Club

My wedding reception was held in early April at the Dominion Country Club and unfortunately, we did not have a great experience. The air conditioning was not functioning properly, leaving all of our guests hot and miserably uncomfortable for the entire 5 hours. I had my guests coming up to me complaining about the heat. As the bride in a ball gown wedding dress, you can imagine how I felt. I didn't even have a sip of alcohol because I knew that would only make me feel more nauseous. Because of this problem, the wedding photos at the reception were also negatively impacted as my hair and makeup were drenched in sweat. I worked very hard to plan out so many aspects of my wedding and the proper functioning of the air conditioning is not something I thought I needed to worry about. But it really ruined the experience. Even now, months after my wedding, as I meet up with friends and family, this is one of the first things they mention about my wedding. It's very embarrassing and unfortunate. My husband and I asked for a partial refund for the negative experience and we were refused. In addition, throughout the planning process, our 'coordinator' was not proactive about reaching out to arrange a date for us to taste menu options, payments, and other planning aspects. My wedding planner and myself had to reach out to her. A few weeks before our actual wedding, our coordinator changed to another girl, who was better, but she was a bit difficult to get a hold of. She seemed stretched thin on her workload. The day of the wedding, I actually arrived at 8am with my bridal party to get ready at the club. My coordinator was supposed to be there early, but she did not come by until hours later and I barely saw her the entire time I was there from 8am til 2:30pm. In our time getting ready, there was a serious fly and gnat issue that I mentioned to her. While we were getting ready there, the AC was very cold, so I had no reason to believe it would become an issue at the reception later on. Had I known, I would have bought portable AC units and/or fans. How I wish I had known!! The food was ok. I remember it being better during my tasting appointment. The venue was clean. One other disappointment was that my groom's cake was never cut. I have no idea why the staff didn't cut that cake as it was part of our wedding package for our cake to be cut and served. I didn't realize it until we were cleaning up and I found the cake untouched. Overall, I would unfortunately not recommend this venue. I toured 6 venues in San Antonio and this was actually the most expensive I toured. Having gone with the most expensive, I expected the experience to be top notch and it was not. Very disappointing, especially for the most important day of my life, my wedding day.

My daughter was married at Dominion in April of 2023. Communication was good in the months during planning and Monica and Amanda were always responsive, so I felt great going into my daughter’s wedding day. Looking back, I had reservations on the condition of Dominion. Little did I know, that would translate into wet carpet in the bridal suite. I have a picture of my daughter with a towel under her feet so her wedding gown wouldn’t get wet. Can you imagine? When I first got there, my sister was frantically trying to find a place to hang my daughter’s wedding gown so that it wouldn’t touch the wet carpet. They said there was no way the carpet was wet, when I told them after the wedding. We paid for food in the bridal suite. That was delivered but water was never refreshed all day and I was asked only once that whole day if everything was going ok. The outlet that we plugged the steamer in was literally falling out of the wall! My planner had to ask them to touch up paint on vents in the ceiling and other places before the wedding and to fix pot holes, ( which they did, after reminding them several times) but the mgt let us know that members weren’t happy he’d done that and not done tennis court repairs.) No lighting in the port a cache . Cocktail hour, which Monica and I had discussed in detail, didn’t go as planned. They didn’t have Chardonnay at both bars, as we’d discussed. One thing I was very concerned about was that guests would be served their plated dinner in a timely manner. I had stressed this to them NUMEROUS times. They assured me this would happen. They said they could handle the number and not to worry. We had almost 250 in attendance and they ASSURED me it would not be a problem. I even said, as soon as salad course is completed, main course needs to be set out. What actually happened was that one room was served and the other dining room waited a long time to receive their dinner. The first room was finished with dinner before the second room was even served. It was so delayed, that my planner was actually in the kitchen trying to push things along ( and came to me and said- there’s a back up in the kitchen) and had to change the timeline and have my daughter and son in law cut their wedding cake before we’d planned. We had discussed a champagne toast and how it was to be executed. When we got to the reception, there were glasses of poured champagne already set at each place. That is not a champagne toast. They were supposed to pour right before the toasts, of course. We paid for premium liquor at two bars for the evening and one bar at the club is hidden and unless you were familiar with the club, you wouldn’t have even known it was there…same with one of the outside bars at cocktail hour. Guests were never pointed to the other bars. Bottom line, they are not equipped to host larger events and the club definitely needs a major facelift and pipes checked in areas of the club. As my planner who has been in the business for 30 years said after my daughter’s wedding, they lack service, communication and need to update the facilities badly. I cannot recommend DCC. After attending several weddings since my daughter’s at different venues and clubs, I hear how effortlessly their weddings were and that they actually got what they paid for and it was done as they had discussed. When my husband, planner and I met with DCC after the wedding to discuss the things that went wrong, excuses were only made. After attending several other weddings lately and reflecting on the things that went wrong the day of my daughter’s wedding, I felt I had to share. We paid a lot of money to DCC and were disappointed and of course, you don’t get a redo on a wedding!

We hosted our wedding and reception at the Dominion earlier this year, and it is a truly beautiful and incredible venue! I am a romantic, and the Dominion's indoor architecture and outdoor scenery offer the perfect backdrop for an unforgettably beautiful night. My parents had their reception here over 20 years ago, so it was particularly special for my husband and I to be able to celebrate our wedding here. We were planning from out of state, but the team at the Dominion was very accommodating and coordinated important site visits/tastings/etc on weekends when I was in town. There were some changes in the Special Events Coordinator from the time we initially booked to hosted our wedding, but Monica was our final point-of-contact, and we LOVED working with her. She has a lovely personality, and she made sure all details were exactly as we wanted. The food was delicious, and the bar staff did an excellent job replicating one of our favorite drinks for our signature cocktail. Also, another special shoutout to Monica and her team for going above and beyond to ensure the dance floor was perfect for us. My husband and I did a Latin first dance, and we were particularly nervous about the floor being slick enough for our various turns. Monica was so patient dealing with my anxious self and reassured me repeatedly that the floor would be clean and slick for our big day - all I can say is I had no reason to worry, Monica and her team made sure the floor was PERFECT. Everyone had an incredible time, and we would highly recommend the Dominion to others looking to host a special event!!

Thank you for coordinating such a successful event that our attendees thoroughly enjoyed. The staff demonstrated exceptional service and attentiveness. I would like to express my gratitude to Monica Ramirez for her exceptional professionalism and assistance throughout the planning process. Her valuable suggestions greatly enhanced the impact of our event, and she effortlessly accommodated our last-minute requests. I truly appreciate her prompt and efficient communication through emails and calls. We look forward to our next event at the Dominion. Once again, a special thanks to Monica for her remarkable work ethic and collaboration. We sincerely acknowledge that her contributions were instrumental in our success.